I am going to request an air conditioner in my room because I have asthma.
Does anyone have experience doing this? Do they just add an AC unit to your room or is there specialty housing? I don’t want to be in a dorm where I’m the only freshman.
Most dorms have central air (except North Campus). Would that work for you?
@ErenYeager Most residence halls have freshmen. The major exceptions are Stockwell, North Quad, Northwood graduate Housing, and other graduate housing. They woiuld have to make a legitimate effort to place you in a non-frosh dorm so you get AC. In all likeliness, they will either install an AC in your room or you get placed in an residence hall with AC.
My friend put in the same request last year. She ended up getting placed in a massive room in East Quad, because they considered her asthma a disability.
Notably, Markley does not have a/c.
All of West Quad and East Quad have a/c. It won’t be hard for you to get placed somewhere with a/c.
Federal laws (ADA) requires them to provide AC ( unless they can show it would be too much of a hardship to do …which they can’t). Some schools do this by just putting an air-conditioner in your room but I believe Michigan instead places those who need air-conditioning in a dorm that provides it. That would mean that you would definitely get to avoid North.
Wow lots of misinformation here. The information about air conditioning is explained on the Michigan housing website. First, most of the students in Hill dorms do not have air conditioning. There are over 1,100 students in Markley. However with a doctor’s note Michigan will put a window unit in (which is what was done for my daughter in Markley who has asthma). You may or may not be placed in a dorm that has central AC since they use window units if needed and therefore it is not a factor in placing you on Central or avoiding North.
@galallg Most Hill students DO have air conditioning. Markley is the only Hill dorm without it. MoJo (with almost 500 residents), Couzens (with over 500 residents), Stockwell (about 400 residents, but not open to freshmen), and Alice Lloyd (over 500 residents) all have air conditioning. If I am not mistaken, Oxford also has air conditioning (may be considered part of the Hill).
The students I know who have avoided North ( at least one of whom challenged the North assignment) based on AC needs had a doctors note recommending that the student have ac in “all aspects of their living arrangements” or similar language. A school without central air certainly does not have to provide it even with such a note. A school like Michigan that has multiple dorms with central and room air has to establish that it would work a hardship on the universoty to provide central air for that student. A very difficult standard to meet when the facilities exist. In dealing with another university who said the student had to choose between The dorm with AC and his roomate assignment we ( our ADA lega team) were able to get the University to back down by asking for proof from the university as to why it would be a hardship to meet the students need while giving him his chosen roommate which they allowed other students.
Would a request for an AC unit take priority over a roommate request? Or would the university honor both the roommate request and AC request?
Under the ADA the University must accomodate a student with a medical need for AC awhile otherwise treating them the same as any other student unless doing so would present a hardship to the university. So legally Michigan would have to prove that it would be too difficult to accommodate the need for air-conditioning while honoring the roommate request. Sometimes Michigan Housing will say things that seem to indicate you must choose between your accommodation of your medical problem and a roommate request. However when push comes to shove and the ADA is cited, most universities will back down on the sort of stance